Dave Davies of Hi-Fi plus magazine gives his first impressions of the Michell / Trichord Orca Pre-amplifier
Unlike the revised Stereo Alecto, the Orca is a totally new design quite different from the old Argo. First impressions on unpacking the beast are that Michell have once again produced a really distinctive design. With curved ends, the gloss black acrylic facia rises to form an apex with the centre 4cm or so higher than the ends. Centrally located is a massive silver fronted volume control flanked by source and input selectors. These give a faint impression of hubcaps adding to the distinctiveness of the design. The casing is in yacht grade stainless steel, which looks and feels superb. Silky smooth in operation the controls are a big improvement over the slightly wobbly Argo versions.
Also totally new is the power supply. Gone is the massive 'big toroid in a box' Hera to be replaced by a smaller and more sophisticated beast again cased in stainless steel. Great attention has been paid to filtering and hf noise reduction in the design of this supply. Impecunious purchasers do however have the option to purchase the Orca for approximately £400 less than the full purchase price with a simple off-the-shelf in-line transformer. This will obviously compromise performance but will provide a simple upgrade. Disregarding the cheapo option, I went straight for the full monty.
Keeping the new Alecto in the system, the Orca was rapidly plugged in and fired up. Alternate Blues which I'd used to evaluate the Alecto was bunged on the Gyrodec. Every improvement that the new Alecto had brought about was now enhanced, and then some. Staging gained in height, width and depth and the performers became markedly more three dimensional. Both information retrieval and speed were further enhanced. Switching to CD the performance was still excellent, albeit not up to LP levels. Michell will shortly be introducing a replacement for the ISO, and we'll look at that along with the Orca, in much greater depth in a later issue.
One other special touch: with the Orca you get the most sensuous little remote volume I've ever used. It's a small black aluminium 'Smartie' that fits neatly into the palm of your hand. As sculptural as it is functional, it's a device I actually enjoy using, unlike most remotes that end up gathering dust down the side of the sofa.
